The Environmental Protection Agency failed to adequately investigate toxic contamination in the northern New Jersey city of Ringwood by automaker Ford, according to an internal EPA report released today.

The report, issued by the EPA's Office of Inspector General, examined the environmental agency's oversight of one of the state's worst toxic waste sites after complaints that EPA bungled the cleanup and put people's health at risk. But some critics also fault the report, which they say lets the agency off easy.

The report concluded the agency failed to push for a wider investigation into how much toxic paint sludge Ford dumped in the area, didn't make use of aerial photographs that could have pinpointed more waste, and failed to keep the community informed about what was going on at the site. The report recommends the EPA make sure Ford has submitted all the relevant material regarding its dumping practices at Ringwood and make sure local residents are kept abreast of developments at the site.

Still, many people said the 17-page report, which cost about $545,000 to complete, didn't go far enough far because it failed to hold anyone at the environmental agency responsible.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Ford dumped paint sludge and other toxic waste in the area from its now-closed car manufacturing plant in Mahwah, near the New York border. Residents in the Ringwood area have blamed the paint sludge for health problems including certain cancers and skin diseases.

The site was eventually added to the Superfund list, a ranking of the country's worst environmental dump sites. After Ford performed an EPA-supervised cleanup, the site was taken off the list. But due to the amount of toxic material that was later found, the site was relisted last year, making it the first site to ever be put back on to the Superfund list.